Christiern

Deep end reached--Heavy therapy recommended.

Did I reference the term "prude" anywhere? I don't think so. Be that as it may, I don't know how many times the word you seem so fond of appears in my book, but here, for your deep perusal are a series of brief excerpts. Should you be wanting for more, the book is available at better book sellers everywhere: Bessie’s calm was deliberate and effective. “Did that fucker say something to me?” she asked softly, but before anyone could respond, she jumped the intruder and brought her clenched fists down on his head. According to Ruby, Bessie shouted: “What the fuck you think you’re doin’? I’ll get the whole damn tent out here if I have to. You just pick up them sheets and run!” Telling the pianist to play a blues, Ruby, then in her mid-seventies, delivered—with all the gusto and sensuality Bessie had taught her—a song called “I’ve Got Ten Tons of Pussy.” The crowd went wild. “Them gay guys loved me,” she said as she reported the incident to me in one of her wee hour phone calls. “They had themselves some fag hags, honey, but they had never come across anything like me. I turned out the place, and that tacky drag queen took off!” When the show was over, I said to Bessie in her dressing room, ‘I don’t like it, he took it too quietly.’ Bessie said, ‘Fuck him, he is getting paid to do his job, black or white he is suppose to do the right thing by every act.’ Well, Bessie overheard that woman talking about her like shit, and so she hit her in the mouth. Shouting “What the fuck are y’all pullin’ me all over the damn place for?,” she threw her arms in the air and this time almost knocked Ruby and Porter to the floor. “She was the opposite of Bessie,” said Ruby, making no secret of her disdain for Ms. Saunders. “She had light skin and long curly hair and a gorgeous figure, and she knew it. In fact, she thought her shit didn’t stink. All she was capable of doing was looking cute and turning up her hairy ass. There was a chick that had hairs on her chest. Although the flat’s most popular attraction that season seemed to be a young man who expertly made love to another man, Bessie was most intrigued by an obese lady who performed an amazing trick with a lighted cigarette, then repeated it in the old-fashioned way with a Coca-Cola bottle. “She was real great,” said Ruby, “she could do all them things with her pussy—an educated pussy, you know.” Bessie, being a Southerner, was, of course, inordinately fond of Coca-Cola. “I don’t give a fuck,” she retorted, not bothering to lower her voice, “and if you don’t like it, kiss my black ass and give me my drops.” Bessie yelled, “What the fuck do you think you’re doin’?” and followed up with a barrage of curses that rang through the backstage area. “Viola did some terrible things to Bessie,” said Maud. “If she did something bad, she’d punish her by keeping her locked up in the outhouse all night.” Ruby confirmed this, recalling that Bessie used tell people that she “was raised in a shit house.” “Bessie screamed ‘Get the fuck away from me!’ and she pushed her arms out, throwing the poor woman to the floor. Then she said ‘I ain’t never heard of such shit!’—and poor Porter, he would have done anything to be with that crowd, but now Bessie had done shown her ass to all them people. I felt so sorry for him.” To see them, dancing with a man, you would say, ‘Look at that man dancing with that beautiful woman, and he had his dick strapped down so tight, that it looked like a fat pussy instead of a dick.’ “Squeeze Me” appears to have its origin in an X-rated ditty called “The Boy in the Boat” (the title is a euphemism for clitoris). Fats Waller reworked it and presented it to his music publisher, Clarence Williams, as “Boston Blues.” ...and hollered, in a voice that could be heard clear across 125th Street: “I’m the star of the show, I’m Bessie Smith, and these fuckin’ bastards won’t let me have my money.” “I couldn’t even go to New York and record without you fuckin’ around with these damn chorus bitches. Well, I’m gonna make you remember me today.” “I ain’t never heard of such shit,” said Bessie, using one of her favorite expressions, and walked back to where her prop boys stood. “And as for you, you ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of sissies.” BTW You will also find these terms in an interview I did with Miles Davis, but the magazine, The Saturday Review,gave me a quota on such words, so I hope you understand that I was severely restricted. However, when it came to Bessie, Yale U. Press gave me free rein. Have you any further conjectures to make?

B-3er, are you sure "groper" and "deep" are not one and the same? Remember, anyone can sign on using another's internet account, and deep isn't exactly a hermit.

Blue Note releases New Releases Cassandra Wilson - Oct 7 Glamoured Pat Martino - Oct 7 Think Tank Van Morrison - Oct 21 What's Wrong with This Picture? Al Green - Nov 18 I Can't Stop Norah Jones Feb 10 Feels Like Home Takashi - Feb 10 Storm Zone Wynton Marsalis - Mar 9 The Magic Hour Bill Charlap - Mar 23 Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein Various - Apr 20 Blue Note Revisited Stefon Harris & Blackout - Apr 20 Evolution Joe Lovano - May 6 I'm All for You: Ballad Songbook Reissues Hank Mobley - Oct 7 The Flip Lee Morgan - Oct 7 Sonic Boom Sam Rivers - Oct 7 Fuschia Swing Song Charlie Rouse - Oct 7 Bossa Nova Bacchanal Larry Young Oct 7 Mother Ship Andrew Hill - Oct 7 Passing Ships (prev. unreleased) Miles Davis - Jan 27 Birdland 1951 (prev. unreleased) Benny Carter - Feb 24 Six á la Carter Stan Kenton - Feb 24 Back to Balboa Johnny Smith - Feb 24 Moonlight in Vermont Cannonball/Ernie Andrews - Feb 24 Live Session Nancy Wilson/Geo. Shearing - Feb 24 The Swingin's Mutual RVG Series Donald Byrd - March 9 At the Half Note Café Donald Byrd - March 9 Free Form Sam Rivers - March 9 Fuschia Swing Song Grant Green - March 9 Goin' West Freddie Hubbard March 9 Ready for Freddie Jackie McLean - March 9 Right Now Duke Pearson - March 9 Sweet Honey Bee Jimmy Smith - March 23 Prayer Meetin' Jimmy Smith - March 23 Rockin' the Boat Sonny Rollins - March 23 Newk's Time Horace Silver - March 23 The Cape Verdean Blues Cecil Taylor - March 23 Conquistador Stanley Turrentine - March 23 Never Let Me Go DVD Videos Various - Nov 4 One Night with Blue Note Various - Jan 27 One Night with Blue Note (2-disc DVD/CD Compilations.Boxed Sets Various - Nov 18 Untinted: The Original Source of Madlib's "Shades of Blue" Pieces of a Dream - Feb 10 Sensual Embrace 2

Here's an informative link pertaining to this.

COMMENTARY Old South Lingers in a Legal Lynching By Marian Wright Edelman January 22, 2004 There is a boy in Georgia who almost beat the odds. An African American born to a 15-year-old, drug-addicted mother and an absent father, Marcus Dixon nonetheless went on to become an honor student and all-state football star. His football skills, 3.96 grade point average and 1,200 score on his SAT won him a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University. Marcus, 19, was supposed to enter Vanderbilt last fall. Instead, he is serving a 10-year prison sentence with no chance of parole for having consensual sex when he was 18 years old with a white girl who was three months shy of 16. He is the only person in Georgia history this close in age to his victim to be convicted of "aggravated child molestation," a charge that was intended to protect children from predatory adults, not imprison teenagers for having sex with other teenagers. That such a promising young man could be sucked into the prison pipeline and become another African American statistic speaks volumes about blacks' vulnerability and about their disparate treatment in the justice system. From 1999 to 2000, there were 791,600 black men in jail or prison, compared with just 603,000 black men in higher education. And even though nearly 50 years have passed since Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, Dixon's case raises eerie echoes of the old Southern obsession with miscegenation. Marcus was raised in Rome, Ga., by his partly disabled grandmother. With her blessing, a local white Little League coach, Ken Jones, and his wife, Peri, became Marcus' legal guardians when he was 11, and he became part of their family, which includes a teenage son and daughter. Marcus did not drink, smoke, use drugs or get in trouble. He sang in the high school chorus and worked and volunteered at the YMCA. Universities came calling; two boxes full of recruiting letters still rest beside his bed at home. Then, in February 2003, Marcus had sex with a girl who was almost 16, a virgin. Two days later, she accused him of rape. Investigators didn't give either of them a lie detector test or look for the condom Marcus said he used and threw away. "I didn't believe him," the investigator explained. But the charge didn't stand up. In May, a jury of nine whites and three blacks took just 20 minutes to acquit Marcus of rape. There was no forced sex, they concluded. They then were obliged to consider a lesser charge of "aggravated child molestation" — a charge that was applicable even if the sex was consensual. This statute had never before been used to prosecute consensual sex between teens with less than a three-year age difference, and a majority of states have passed "Romeo and Juliet" statutes — which deal with teen sex when both partners are close in age — for exactly these types of cases. Later, several jurors said they thought the charge was minor and were shocked when the judge announced the mandatory 10-year sentence. The case has been appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, and arguments were heard Wednesday. Marcus has already missed his high school graduation and lost his scholarship. If the conviction is not overturned, you can almost hear the death knell ringing for this young man's future. Once out of prison, he would have a felony record and be required to register as a sex offender wherever he lives, effectively killing his aspiration to be a teacher and coach. The racism and disparate treatment that underlie this case are widespread. In 1997, although they made up only 34% of U.S. teens, minorities represented 67% of youths in detention. For those charged with violent offenses, blacks are jailed nine times more often than whites. Marcus' case brings back memories of all the black men who were lynched, executed or imprisoned for having relationships with white women, and it recalls the way black males are perceived to this day. Almost 50 years may have passed since Emmett Till was lynched, but the unjust treatment of African American males goes on. No example could be more egregious or heartbreaking than that of Marcus Dixon. Marian Wright Edelman is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

Hey, the next time y'all meet someone who's too white, I know this little seafood restaurant in Laguna Beach that will give her hepatitis.

New York to Reykjavík, Iceland. It took 25 days, because we lost the convoy during the attack, and had to head for Loch Ewe, Scotland, to wait for another convoy. I was on the same ship, and it was sunk by U-boat U-300 five months later.

When I was ten, I came to the U.S. from Iceland, and stayed close to 3 years. The convoy I was in (HX-156) was attacked by U-Boats, and I will never forget the experience (although I survived a worse attack on the journey back, in June of 1944. Anyway, since I am working on a memoir, I recall that there was a lot of press in connection with this trip, because it marked the first sinking of a U.S. Navy vessel in WWII, the Reuben James. I have spent hours at the NY Public Library, going over microfilm, but I didn't know the exact date of my arrival, so it was a frustrating, slow search. Today, however, I found an online database that took me right to it: November 8, 1941. This only has the NY Times, Washington Post, and LA Times, but now I know the date, so I can zero right in on it in the many newspapers that NY had at the time--I remember, for example, that there were pictures of of us kids looking through a lifesaver. BTW, 100 lives were lost when U-552 sank the Reuben James,and Woody Guthrie wrote a song about it ("The Sinking of the Reuben James"). Sorry, I know this is probably too small to read, but I just had to share...

I saw those while I was shopping. Real nice, but it took $150 worth of rebates for me just to spring for what I got. You must know someone in the business. I know people in the business, but I did not get a discount. I hate to remind myself of it, but Apple introduced the 23" HDTV-ready Cinema for the same price price a month after I bought this one. And they knocked over $1,000.00 off the price of mine!

I have a Apple 22" Cinema flat-panel on my main computer, a Apple 16" flat screen Studio Monitor on my Mac Cube, and lowly Magnavox 14" monstrosity on my Mac 6500 (which I hardly ever use). My iMacs have built-in monitors.

I can forgive you for that, weizy, but I think you were being just a little dishonest when you didn't even mention the accompanying document, the last two pages of which I hereby post:

Very funny, Weizen, but one small problem--I am Albertson because my father was the son of Albert (an old Icelandic thing, that). My Danish family name is Broberg. Otherwise, commendable research.

Just curious, Chris, why are you doing this? For geneological research, historical research for a biographical project, or what? If it's none of my business, feel free to say so. It's just that it sounds like a most "unusual" project. Thanks, Jim I guess it is unusual. I am doing it for a research project (not mine) that deals with Denmark's involvement in the slave trade. I am working on 1772 now, but I will be going much farther back. The reason I was asked to do this is my familiarity with Gothic handwriting and the Danish language of that period. I have been working on a book dealing with my own family which entailed going through, deciphering and translating letters, diaries and papers going back to the early 19th century. BTW, I was glad to discover that my family (major coffee merchants who owned plantations in South America and the Caribbean region) were never involved in the slave trade. They were possibly the richest family in Denmark at one point, but a not so business-savvy great great grandfather of mine lost the family fortune. This will give you an idea of what I have to work with...

I was working at WNEW when the March on Washington took place--I had two bus tickets and was eager to go, but Metromedia wouldn't give me the day off. In a way, that was a good thing, for I gave the tickets to two African-American friends who had to be talked into using them. They came back to NYC with a glow on their faces that I shall never forget--better still, it sparked in them an interest in the Civil Rights movement that had not been there before. Yes, Johnny, this is a day for all of us to reflect. It so happens that I am already doing some heavy thinking, because I am currently going through 1772 tax ledgers for the Virgin Islands, entering into a database every household, every institution and their slaves. The islands were owned by Denmark at the time, so these are records kept for the Danish King. I am translating into English, which is no problem, but the handwriting of 300 years ago was more decorative than readable. Anyway, it is an assignment that gives me much to think about, especially since--coming from Denmark--one has a tendency to think of slavery as some other country's outrage.

You said it, Brownie, the Duke book is difficult to put down...

Apropos why they hate us... Here's an interesting, lengthy piece on Garrisoning the Planet.

To each his own, I guess.

Sounds like a close one, Alexander--along with you, we are all fortunate.

The fact is that I do know Phil, and have for many years. He has an inflated ego, which he tries to boost by making a pretense of knowing more about jazz than he actually does. What bothers me is that he frequently engages in revisionism in order to come across as someone who has inside information. The sad thing is that Phil does know a lot about jazz history, so much that he really doesn't need to make things up. I can tell you one thing, there is little or no respect for him among jazz professionals. When you have a lot of air time and play records, musicians will "like" you, if for no other reason. Finally, if Phil is such a good friend of jazz, I think he should talk less and play more music.

Sure fooled me! I stand corrected (I think). Coffee smells a bit warmed-over, however.

DEEP wrote: "Christiern, why do you squander your (inalienable) right to free speech on petulant BUSH BASHING? How about your considered thoughts on the sources and solutions of repression, brutality, poverty, ignorance and the other major ills BEYOND our borders? Go ahead--light a single candle..." The supreme court has installed into the presidential office an incompetent who ran for the office but did not receive the majority of votes. This man, having surrounded himself with other incompetent (but more intelligent), agenda-driven people, and being to a large extent egged on by their self-serving motives, proceeded to throw us into a gratuitous invasion of Iraq. These people have the blood of innocents on their hands and they will stop at nothing to get what they want for themselves--not America, themselves--and if that requires breaking the laws that they are supposed to enforce, so be it. The ruthlessness with which these people proceed knows no bounds; they have no decency, no conscience, no scruples when it comes to outrageous exploitation of other peoples misery. The grabbed onto the 9/11 tragedy and pumped it for all they could wring out of it (an ongoing process), and this week they sent their warmongering titular head to lay a wreath at Martin Luther King's grave to justify expenses in connection with an election fund-raiser. As for the sources and solutions of "repression, brutality, poverty, ignorance and the other major ills beyond our borders," these Bush people are responsible for some of that, but they are working hard to fertilize the same litany of ills within our borders. It is for this reason that I think anyone who truly loves America, anyone who believes in true democracy and equality has an obligation to get these non-elected people out of power. Bush "bashing," as you call it, has become a prerequisite for a healthy America. It will take a long time to restore our tarnished image and heal the wounds afflicted by Bush and his group, but it has to start with his ouster--we must undo what Bush's supreme court did to us. As the Bush people chip away at it, I will continue to exercise my right to free speech. Part of that is to condemn Bush and his group for what they are doing, and I recommend that you step out of the ideological fog that engulfs you and give some "considered thought" to what I regard as your deeply misguided notion of patriotism.

It depends on the length of the notes and the label. We used to get $75 for notes at Prestige until Joe Goldberg made a deal with Bob Weinstock to do them for $50. Guess what? Suddenly 50 bucks was what we all got. In more recent years, a regular set of notes goes for $350 to $600, but more is paid for extensive (i.e. box set) annotation. Back in the 1970s, Time-Life paid $7,000 for each "Giants of Jazz" booklet ($3,500 each for the bio and the track descriptions). I did a few and became quite spoiled. Anyway, the ordinary single CD on a non-major label should command about 350-500.

There's just so much to grope!